Xitai西泰 o “la Eminencia del Oeste” y su encrucijada al inventar a Deus en la mente de Kongzi 孔子 a 2000 años de su muerte

Abstract

In 1583, in the city of Zhaoqing, the first Christian mission obtained imperial permission to be established in China. This mission was led by the Jesuits Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci, who arrived with a vision to preach the gospel of Iesus. But what happens if historically in the Chinese imaginary the archetype of God was never present? In this situation, Ricci understood the importance of the teachings of Confucius in the Chinese mind, so finally he tried to identify and build on his thought the figure of God, even if he had been dead for more than 2000 years. The strategy was to represent the early Confucianism as a natural religion given by divine revelation, but lacking the proclamation of Christ and depraved by Taoism and Buddhism, becoming in Neo-Confucianism. Hence, according to Ricci, it needed cleaning of these influences so that it could experience the light revealed by the Catholic Church. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze the construction process of Confucianism as a natural religion emphasizing the invention of a unique, divine and creator being in the Confucian thought.